Global design personalities speak at Cumulus conference hosted by Tec

Tec de Monterrey has collaborated with the University of Monterrey to host the Global Association of Art and Design Education and Research (Cumulus) Conference for the first time in Latin America.

The Monterrey campus Conference Center welcomed students to participate in workshops, chats, and talks on various topics, which also featured international specialists and artists.

Different topics discussed included visual and body narratives, human-robot interaction, and community biodiversity, among others.

This year’s edition, ‘Design without Borders: United in Creativity,’ celebrates the power of design to unify across borders, fostering unity, collaboration, and innovation.

Cumulus represents a dynamic ecosystem for internationalization and global mobility, knowledge exchange, and collaboration on the pedagogy, research, and practice of art and design.

Promoting Mexican design internationally

Tec professor, art curator, and writer Ana Elena Mallet gave a talk to the Cumulus 2024 attendees, in which she presented an overview of Mexican design.

She shared her experience of gathering more than 600 pieces to showcase the history of Mexican design at the University Museum of Contemporary Art (MUAC) in Mexico City.

“It was a historical exhibition inspired by three questions. Every time I gave a talk, taught a class, or went somewhere, people would ask me the same three questions: Is there design in Mexico? Is there a history of design in Mexico? Where can I find design in Mexico?

“So, I wanted to raise those questions and try to answer them in this presentation. I don’t know if I did a good job, but it was very successful. There were more than 600 pieces portraying 70 years of Mexican design,” she said in her talk.

During this talk, she reviewed the history of design in the country, from 1950 to the present.

“Mexican designers or designers in Mexico consider their context, cultural heritage, and mortality to try to understand social, political, and historical issues.

“They must strive to design for their territory and for its most complex problems, in daily life, community inequality, and the need to detect problems that allow proactive solutions to achieve better ways of living,” she said.

Design: An attitude that meets today’s needs

In her talk, British design critic and author Alice Rawsthorn highlighted how design plays a crucial role in these times of great change.

In her book, Design as an Attitude, she emphasized that design is not just about creating aesthetically pleasing objects.

According to Rawsthorn, design is an attitude that evolves and adapts to present needs.

She said that this flexibility allows designers to create innovative and effective solutions to drive social, ecological, and political change.

The design critic also emphasizes the need for a change in the design approach, highlighting that it should be more compassionate, diverse, and inclusive, as it aims to have the best designers and the best possible design proposals.

“Empathy will be absolutely essential to design in the future. Not only empathy with us but also with other species,” Rawsthorn said.

She also discussed how design has the potential to be a tool and how it can have a significant impact when combined with other disciplines.

Wrapping up her talk, she addressed the importance of teaching new generations of designers to embrace and pursue these new ideas in the industry.

“Empathy will be essential to design in the future.” - design critic Alice Rawsthorn

Beyond design: Multi-skilled artists

Don Norman, industrial designer and author of “Design for a Better World,” came to Cumulus 2024 with a proposal:to change the education system.

Norman talked about how difficult it is for designers to reach management positions within a company.

He blames this on an education system that strives to forge specialists in the field of design yet leaves aside the necessary skills of any business leader.

“There is no single field that is the most important; it’s the combination that matters,” Norman said during his argument for activity-based learning.

He explained that design tries to empathize, not only with the consumer, but also with the distribution company and the company itself.

Therefore, diversifying knowledge presents a competitive advantage to better understand how the world works and thus how to create the applicable designs, he said.

“A complex world is a complex system, and everything has an impact.”

In the end, Norman highlighted that the future of business lies in service design, thus avoiding the programmed obsolescence of equipment and returning to a world where design serves the consumer.

“Designs by themselves are worthless. A design is a plan to do something, but it is of little use unless implemented,” he concluded.

The design of the future

Stuart Candy, a futurist, artist, facilitator and professor at Tec de Monterrey, gave a talk about the future of design, the extended mind, and artists’ creations.

“When you design, you create a fragment of the future.

“It’s not just about creating objects, it’s about thinking about systems, environments, and the whole context in which we are intervening,” he said.

In order to face the problems of the future, designers will have to consider different scenarios, said the professor.

“The design space is relevant to experiential futures, to address the problem of a future that doesn’t exist, although we want to understand it better. It includes all the experiences you can create to simulate or instantiate possible futures,” he concluded.

Showcasing their art in Cumulus 2024

During Cumulus 2024, students from the Tec held an exhibition inviting participants to think about art and design.

The exhibition was held for the 25th anniversary of the institution’s art and design programs.

They presented physical rehabilitation kits, tableware that promotes conscious consumption, a collection of footwear and handbags, and board games, among others.

*With information from Annya Barrera and Carolina Contreras

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